Main Navigation

San Francisco: Alexander Berkman, 1916. Uncommonly nice copy of Berkman's important revolutionary journal, published from 1916 to 1917 (29 issues total). Though conceived as a pro-labor revolutionary organ without specific political affiliations, The Blast, as one would predict given Berkman's background and affiliations, tended strongly toward a militant anarchist point of view. The current issue features articles by Caroline Nelson, Luke North, and Ed Gammons, with a poem by Frank A. Fearnley, and a letter to Berkman from Charles Erskine Wood Scott.

The Blast was a hastily-produced, ephemeral publication, fragile from the outset and clearly not built to last. Original issues are exceedingly uncommon in the trade. GOLDWATER 23. Quarto (31cm); illustrated wrappers, stapled; 8pp. Oxidation to staples, light wear and creasing along upper edge and upper right corners, with a stray pencil mark to upper left corner of front wrapper; text is uncharacteristicaly fresh; Very Good+.